Thursday, August 06, 2009

The Washington Post Plays The Race Card

About this poster cropping up all over Los Angeles:


From this article in the Washington Post:
...[T]he poster is ultimately a racially charged image. By using the "urban" makeup of the Heath Ledger Joker, instead of the urbane makeup of the Jack Nicholson character, the poster connects Obama to something many of his detractors fear but can't openly discuss. He is black and he is identified with the inner city, a source of political instability in the 1960s and '70s, and a lingering bogeyman in political consciousness...

The Joker's makeup in "Dark Knight" -- the latest film in a long franchise that dramatizes fear of the urban world -- emphasized the wounded nature of the villain, the sense that he was both a product and source of violence. Although Ledger was white, and the Joker is white, this equation of the wounded and the wounding mirrors basic racial typology in America. Urban blacks -- the thinking goes -- don't just live in dangerous neighborhoods, they carry that danger with them like a virus. Scientific studies, which demonstrate the social consequences of living in neighborhoods with high rates of crime, get processed and misinterpreted in the popular unconscious, underscoring the idea....

It is an ugly idea, operating covertly in that gray area that is always supposed to be opened up to honest examination whenever America has one of its "we need to talk this through" episodes. But it lingers, unspoken but powerful, leaving all too many people with the sense that exposure to crime creates an ineluctable propensity to crime.

Superimpose that idea, through the Joker's makeup, onto Obama's face, and you have subtly coded, highly effective racial and political argument. Forget socialism, this poster is another attempt to accomplish an association between Obama and the unpredictable, seeming danger of urban life. It is another effort to establish what failed to jell in the debate about Obama's association with Chicago radical William Ayers and the controversy over the racially charged sermons of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Obama, like the Joker and like the racial stereotype of the black man, carries within him an unknowable, volatile and dangerous marker of urban violence, which could erupt at any time. The charge of socialism is secondary to the basic message that Obama can't be trusted, not because he is a politician, but because he's black.

I call BS on the above article!

The idea that we cannot criticize BHO's policies because any such criticism is racism is pure nonsense. Dangerous nonsense.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The idea that we cannot criticize BHO's policies because any such criticism is racism is pure nonsense. Dangerous nonsense.

Sounds exactly like, "Cricizing Islam is racism." Could Hussein's schooling in Indonesia in a Muslim society be a reason he is so against criticism? Is it really coincidence that the first ever president of the US that has Hussein in his name and Muslim connections acts so much like Muslims? Or could it be because he still holds on to the faith of his father?

I don't want to be one of those people that just want to believe, "Oh, whatever, he's a Muslim." But when the facts bite me in the butt, I can't just go on ignoring them.

I know from personal experience, if I hadn't shunned every single Islamic thing in my life, I would be loving Hussein right now and I would be promoting the slogan, "Islam means peace, some people have however hijacked it and made it violent" even though I would be claiming to be a Christian.

I don't know if the above sentence made sense to anyone!!

Always On Watch said...

Avenging Apostate,
Thank you for commenting.

Sounds exactly like, "Cricizing Islam is racism."

That same thought crossed my mind as I posted.

Your comment makes perfect sense to me!

Christine said...

Prior to Obama being elected i wrote a post regarding the advantages of the race card. I knew that it would be pulled out as often as possible. Since being called a racist is considered a great sin, Obama, the Democrats & the msm would use it to knock down any detractor they could. This is a perfect example. And to make it worse, they threw in the "urban" stereotype to boot. I say bullshit! The poster's meaning is exactly what it is. Obama is dangerous, not to be trusted & a damn socialist. Period. The color of his skin, in real life or in this poster, is totally beside the fact. We are in for the worst 4 years of our lives.

And yes, Obama is a damn muslim! Screw the apologists. I've seen and heard enough evidence . We need to find us a decent, patriotic black Republican to put into the WH, to prove to America that they are not at all like the current dictator wanna be. It's not about the color of their skin, but about the content of their charactor that matters. And Obama's one f'd up charactor.

surrey said...

Oh man you are such a American joker..

Always On Watch said...

Christine,
I'm glad that the WaPo ran this artcle -- front page of the "Style" section.

The WaPo is still widely read by voters. Surely, they will see what an illogical load of crap the article is.

Christine said...

Yes AOW, let's hope that people will see the real reason the race card was used. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with racism.